August 30, 2008

GB and Me

How do you sum up the best week of your life in one blog entry? I have no idea where to begin. Our wedding was spectacular. It was absolutely everything we dreamed of and much, much more. There is absolutely no accounting for the feeling of being surrounded by all your people in one place at one time and realizing how much love exists in the world for you both as an individual and as a couple. The whole day was perfect. I get choked up just thinking about it.

We spent the morning at our B and B with our wedding party pushing each other in the pool with our clothes on. We split up with our respective people to get ready for the wedding at about noon. My party was running a little late and I was feeling awful for arriving late at the wedding even though we were all meeting 90 minutes prior to the guests for photos etc. The whole drive I was worried and getting tense. When we arrived I started walking across the grass to the tent. GB’s immediate family and wedding party were all there and the music was playing and the day was beautiful and all of a sudden I spotted the love of my life walking towards me with a big smile and I knew right then in that moment that I was the absolute happiest I had ever been in my entire life. All the stress just washed away as I realized how lucky I was to be marrying GB. The rest is pretty much history. The day went faster than I knew was possible. I kept wishing for time to slow down so I could savor every moment and every conversation.

We both maintain that one of the best things we did all day was to greet our guests as they arrived so we got to interact with absolutely everyone before the ceremony. The other thing we are glad we did was to address each other’s families at the start of the ceremony and thank them for all their love and support. That pretty much kicked off the waterworks which really didn’t stop until the ceremony was over. After the ceremony there was amazing food, ultimate frisbee, mind-blowing toasts, and a whole lot of laughter and tears.

After dinner when it got dark lots of our friends and all the cousins came back to our house for a bonfire which gave us more time to connect with everyone. Jack was in all of his glory around the fire and Finn spent the night hiding in his crate from all the people.

The next day we had brunch with both of our immediate families before leaving for Maine for our honeymoon. We laughed almost the entire way to Maine and were on a complete wedding high. We had a cute little cabin on a lake and did lots of kayaking and hiking all week. The dogs were thrilled to be with us and Finn even let me kayak with him in the boat for a while!

Coming back to reality after that week was very difficult and we spent several days trying to avoid real life. Alas we are more or less settled in again now and are enjoying looking through the thousand pictures from the best day of our lives.

August 12, 2008

Folks, we are a mere three days from The Big Day. People are starting to roll into town in their wedding get-up. It’s craziness, I tell you. When I sit and think of all the people who are coming into town for US and to celebrate US, it’s a little overwhelming.

We are a little puzzled by our to-do list. Every day we cross lots of things off the list but the list never seems to get shorter! Nonetheless, things are going well. This week we have been doing fun things like buying the gifts for the wedding party and finalizing the programs. The wedding party gifts were a huge struggle. We wanted to get something that they would genuinely like and that would make sense in the context of who we are and what’s important to us. We hit the nail on the head yesterday and are very excited about it. I can’t tell you though, because someone who’s in the wedding might read about it.

I don’t really want to admit how much energy I went to this week to find wrapping paper for these gifts in the colors of our wedding. Sort of by accident the colors turned out to be sage green and brown. Which also turns out to be the color of GB’s and my eyes respectively – kinda cool. GB was laughing at me because I was on the search for brown ribbon – which I will say was darn hard to find.

On Friday morning we have a big crew of people coming with us to our friends’ farm where they grew the flowers for the wedding. The crew will pick and arrange the flowers so that should be a blast to do with such an eclectic group of people. Friday afternoon is the start of party time – first some time with my godparents who are coming from Canada and then a giant picnic with GB’s immediate and extended family and my family. Then on Saturday morning we’re having a brunch for the wedding party at our B and B (which has a pool!) and we’ll all head to the wedding together. And THEN GB and I commit the rest of our lives to each other, eat some good food, and hang out with friends.

So, the good times are rolling around here. I’m still working on getting healthy. Tomorrow I work a half day and then have the next week and a half off work! I have hardly been training at all because I have been busy being sick and planning a wedding (those two being unrelated, of course) and I’m really looking forward to being back on my training schedule. I noticed a run and bike on the schedule for my wedding day and when I questioned my darling coach about it (thinking it was an error) she assured me that it was not accidental and that I would one day thank her for keeping me grounded before my wedding festivities began. I suspect she may be right.

August 9, 2008

The big day is in exactly a week. GB and I collectively crapped our pants when I said that out loud yesterday morning. I think I spoke too soon when I said things were on the upswing. There are still a surprising number of details left, but we’re cranking through them. One of these is that I still have my horrendous bike tan lines from Chicago! I look like I’m wearing a bike jersey and I need these gone for my sleeveless appearance next Saturday. So I am on a mandatory planning tan for the next six days.

I have also come down with something and am working on getting healthy in the next week. I’ve had a fever for over a week, swollen glands, and have a hard time staying awake during the day. Hopefully this is just the result of working too hard and my symptoms will subside soon. It always amazes me what stress can do to the body.

In other news, when I walked in the door after work on Thursday, one of my most yearned-for registry gifts was sitting on the table. Yes folks, someone bought the Cadillac of coffee makers for us. I was so excited that I squealed (and ask Jen, Beth, and Liz – I generally don’t squeal). Anyway, I pored through the manual, oohing and aahing about the various features. GB tried hard to care but it’s no secret that as long as there is freshly made coffee available, GB doesn’t really care where it came from.

I’ll post a picture of it later, but know this: yesterday’s cup of coffee was the absolute best ever.

August 3, 2008

I think we’re on the upswing! It seems GB and I have reached the less-hectic time of wedding planning. Most of the details have been hashed out and we’re feeling pretty good about things. All of a sudden it feels a lot less crazy and a lot more exciting. Today we are working on our wedding vows. I am currently taking a break from vow-writing because I keep starting to cry at the thought of it all. I feel so lucky to be having all these important people showing up to celebrate our love and so lucky to be able to say ‘I do’ with GB. It’s amazing how much emotion can be crammed into one weekend event! Anyway, it’s a relief to be crying about feeling good instead of about feeling haggard and exhausted. A nice change, for sure!

This weekend has been remarkably refreshing after such a busy time at work. Yesterday GB and I went for a ride together. It was certainly nothing resembling what was on my workout schedule, but I have decided along with Coach’s approval, to take things as they come for the next little while and not try to cram in workouts at the expense of my sanity.

Our neighbor has kindly offered us her house while she’s away this week. The big deal in that is that she has a screened-in porch with a bed in it so we can sleep outside in the fresh air without having to fend off bugs and bears. After one night of sleeping outside I already feel amazingly rested and much lighter. No wonder D looks 15 years younger than she is after years of sleeping outside! I woke up this morning to the sound of a hummingbird flying four feet in front of my face. You can’t beat that for an alarm clock!

Anyway, I have missed all my blogger friends. I hope everyone is well and will catch up on my blog reading sometime this week, I hope.